University started back this week in Australia and many TAFEs started a week or two prior. Even so, educational institutions are still taking expressions of interest for courses and enrolments.

Traineeships can be of appeal throughout the year – but don’t let that be an excuse to put off looking into one!  They are an excellent way to go about gaining a qualification whilst at work, earning an income.

An added incentive is that employer’s in Australia can get money from the government for taking someone on and enroling them to do a course. Not sure if your employer or potential employer would be up for a traineeship? Ask!

There are apprenticeship factories in Australia as well as other employment agencies. If researching apprenticeships, consider approaching these services and local educational institutions to find out about qualifications on offer.

In the Victorian vicinity and want a horse qualification? The National Centre for Equine Education offers traineeships and other ways to get qualified up to diploma level in racing, breeding and performance. Inquire today!

‘In training horses, one trains himself.’ – Antoine De Pluvinet

Perhaps you love to study and write.  There are a lot of courses available around the world that offer horse related qualifications.  For each of these courses to be offered, resources first had to be established for them.

I was talking with a colleague a couple of weeks ago about writing resources.  One of our qualifications has undergone a training package change, resulting in new resources needing to be written for some units.  For accredited courses in Australia, there are guidelines on the number of units that need to be included to make up a qualification, as well as what sort of units can be included.

Once units are included in a qualification, it is up to the training provider to provide students with resources for each unit of their course.  These units have guidelines on what information must be included and how students are to be assessed.  From these guidelines, learner resources are often written to ensure that they meet the training package requirements.

For someone who is knowledgeable in the horse industry, there may be a role in creating such resources.

Although many institutes may utilise employed teachers to create their resources, sometimes – due to time restraints or a lack of knowledge in a particular field – it can be of benefit for an educational institution to purchase learning resources and corresponding assessments.

There is surely a market out there for an educated individual to create such resources and offer them for sale to appropriate educational institutions.  Food for thought.

“To learn all that a horse could teach, was a world of knowledge, but only a beginning…” – Mary O’Hara